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BioWare's cancelled spy RPG 'Agent' revealed

BioWare had a Bond-y, Bourne-ish espionage RPG in the works several years ago but it ended up scrapped, Trent Oster has revealed. Codenamed 'Agent,' it was the BioWare co-founder's last project before he left in 2009, and hoped to showcase the full spread of a secret agent's talents.

BioWare had a Bond-y, Bourne-ish espionage RPG in the works several years ago but it ended up scrapped, Trent Oster has revealed. Codenamed 'Agent,' it was the BioWare co-founder's last project before he left in 2009, and hoped to showcase the full spread of a secret agent's talents.

"The concept was to do the other half of GoldenEye," Oster told Eurogamer. "The idea being that James Bond isn't just a gun that walks around the world and shoots people. He's a suave manipulator, he's a talented martial artist, he's a secret agent. We wanted to cross that 007 with Jason Bourne, where he's been modified in some way; you're not sure what, but he's definitely deadly."

Oster explained that BioWare wanted to "push the acting side," with "very high drama, very intense scenes" like the Bourne movies' punch-ups. Ultimately, Oster said, the project "failed to survive the recession" and ended up cancelled.

However, he said, "Fundamentally EA didn't believe in the concept, and if the company's not behind it, it doesn't matter how hard you struggle you just can't make it happen."

BioWare's fellow veteran RPG studio Obsidian also had an espionage RPG in the works at the time, Alpha Protocol. That came out quite charming and ambitious, though a bit wonky, so it would've been nice to see an alternate take on the genre from BioWare.